Converting IDE system to SATA RAID System?

[roscoe_v]

I currently have a system running XP with multiple IDE drives and want to switch to SATA drives running RAID 0 or 1. My question: Is there any software or application that can take my existing data and copy it to the SATA drives (with RAID turned on) without having to re-install all my existing applications and starting from scrratch. I was hoping that Ghost or something else was available to do this but I can't seem to find anything.

Thanks,
roscoe_v

[Yawgm0th]

There should be some ghosting programs that can do it, but I've never used any. Personally, I'd just backup improtant data and reinstall the OS and programs.

Also, I wouldn't use RAID 0 or 1. Both have extremely high overhead and RAID 0 is incredibly unstable. I could see using a RAID 5 array, or maybe even a RAID 10 or 0+1 array, but RAID 0 and 1 are just wasteful IMO.

[maximus7001]

I would not expect many ghost type like programs will be very happy or even work at all with sata.

[wayout44]

I currently have a system running XP with multiple IDE drives and want to switch to SATA drives running RAID 0 or 1. My question: Is there any software or application that can take my existing data and copy it to the SATA drives (with RAID turned on) without having to re-install all my existing applications and starting from scrratch.

The only way to do the PATA to SATA change over properly is to do a clean install (anything else will very likely cause a lot of problems).

[roscoe_v]

I want to thank everyone for their input. I did reload everything from scratch... it was painful but it all worked out OK. I ended up using RAID 1, I know it's high overhead but storage is cheap and I like having the mirroring option. The SATA performance is quite noticeable over IDE.

I would like clarification on one thing. I think this will work but I want to make sure before I try it. Currently I'm using WD 120GB SATA drives. If I want to instal larger drives in the future, can I do the following:
- pull my mirrored drive
- install a larger drive as the mirror
- reboot the system and let it copy the source to the mirror
- switch the mirror to the source position
- install the second larger drive as the mirror
- reboot the system and let it copy the source to the mirror

Thanks,
roscoe

[Smoelf]

NORTON GHOST Can ghost a ide disk over to any sata raid crontroler... i tryed it out.. ghosted the normal ide over in a raid 0 with 4x160gbs hdd's that was kinda funny =)